Five Things I Wish I Knew Before Visiting New Zealand

I recently spent a week exploring New Zealand on a whirlwind tour of the country coordinated by Tourism New Zealand as part of the Blog4NZ Project. As soon as I arrived, I knew that I had found a new favorite travel destination and I can’t wait to return and get to know the Kiwis better. Even though I loved my experience, there are some things I wish I knew before visiting.

1. Driving Quirks – I know what you’re expecting here, some sort of complaint about driving on the left-hand side of the road. That actually wasn’t a big deal and I adjusted to the change fairly quickly. No, I’m talking about some of the strange road signs associated with any type of driving in New Zealand. The most bizarre example is what I call the backwards arrow. When I first arrived early in the morning, I jumped in the rental car ready to start my adventure trip. The only problem was that I couldn’t figure out how to leave the car park. I found what I thought was the exit, except that the arrows painted on the road were pointing into the parking lot, which I thought was the universal sign meaning I was going the wrong way. From my experience, arrows pointed on the road are painted in the direction in which you are traveling, otherwise you’re in the wrong lane. After circling the lot a few times, to the amusement of the attendant no doubt, I finally realized that in New Zealand apparently arrows going in the “wrong” direction actually mean you are progressing in the right direction and not headed towards a car accident. Who knew?

2. Unbelievable beauty – Ok, this may be a little saccharine, but I wasn’t at all prepared for the constant, never-ending natural beauty of New Zealand. Yes I saw pictures before I left and yes, everyone told me how gorgeous it is, but I hear that about every new place I visit. What I wasn’t ready for was that every square inch of the country is stunning, almost beyond description. I wish I’d known about this beforehand, because it frankly would have saved me a lot of time. Early in the trip, I stopped every few miles to take photos of whatever new, jaw-droppingly gorgeous vista popped up after I turned a bend. Eventually, I had to stop taking pictures and just drive or I wouldn’t have been able to do anything else. This happened again on the South Island as I drove from Franz Josef to Wanaka. My directions said the trip took normal, non-amazed people 3 ½ hours to complete. It took me six hours, mostly because I couldn’t stand passing by the physical beauty of the countryside without stopping to soak it all in.

photo credit: Peter J Dean

3. Rugby – Americans know that certain sports exist, but we don’t fully understand what they are or how they’re played. Cricket, handball and Australian Rules Football all fall into this category, but it was rugby that left me at a loss in New Zealand. To say that Kiwis like rugby is a massive understatement; to the casual traveler it seems to be the national obsession. I know that the impending Rugby World Cup, which is taking place in New Zealand, is partly to blame, but only partly. Regardless of the World Cup, they just really love the sport and I had no idea how to relate. I tried watching, Googled the rules and even asked people, but nothing helped. Instead, I just stood by the sidelines watching a high school team practice one morning in Rotorua interested more in what the sport means to New Zealand more than the actual match itself. Obviously, I wish I’d done some rugby research before my trip.

4.National Dish is…Meat – I’m a carnivore, dyed in the wool. I tolerate some vegetables, but not many and not often. So when I quickly learned that the entire country of New Zealand agrees with my culinary style, I was thrilled. Not only was a hardy meat dish the staple of every meal, meat was even served as a garnish! I had a mixed grill plate one evening that was surrounded by pieces of streaky bacon. It was awesome! Meat pies, sausage rolls, bacon as a garnish all combine to create a meat lover’s paradise. I just wish I’d packed some cholesterol pills in my duffel bag.

5. Masters of Understatement – My schedule in New Zealand was ambitious, and included a lot of exciting travel experiences – fitting for the adventure travel capital of the world. Before my trip, I visited the various web sites but nothing really jumped out as cause for concern. It seems though that Kiwis are so used to extreme travel, that they don’t even think to warn outsiders about it. This tendency towards understatement also extends far beyond adventure travel though.

Kiwi web site – Enjoy a tube trip through underground cavesReality – Class five rapids in the dark with multiple waterfalls off which you will have to jump backwards

Kiwi web site – Take in the pastoral views as you drive across the countryReality – You will pass by examples of natural beauty the likes of which you have never seen that will leave you momentarily dazed and prone to veering off road.

Kiwi web site – The roads are a bit challengingReality – Four hours of zigzagging mountain roads, covered with ice and grit and seemingly endless single lane, two direction bridges

I don’t think their understatements are intentional, New Zealanders are just used to the extreme nature of their country and assume everyone else is as well.

Have you been to New Zealand? What are some things you wish you knew before your first visit?

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By: Matt Long

Matt has a true passion for travel. As someone who has a bad case of the travel bug, Matt travels the world in order to share tips on where to go, what to see and how to experience the best the world has to offer.
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Ha! Love your picture of the bridge sign. The first time I saw it, it was like, Wha-? But oddly, I mastered reading it really fast!

What do I wish I knew…distances are farther then you expect! “Wedges” are potatoes (My first day, when I saw it on the menu, I was like, “a wedge of what?”).

Glad you had a great time, but cricky, a week for the whole country? You normally couldn’t even do the top of the North Island in that amount of time! Heck, my parents came to visit me for 12 days and we spent 8 of them in the car.

Amanda

July 7, 2011

Haha, I loved #5. So true! Kiwis are so laid-back and used to their country that they don’t realize how much of a shock it is to the rest of us. Didn’t you also love how those twisty mountain roads have no guardrails or other barriers between you and steep cliffs?

As for that first photo of the “backwards” arrow, I think the big arrow just means that traffic coming from the other direction across the narrow bridge has the right-of-way. No clue about the weird parking lot, though… lol.

sean

August 19, 2016

I am from the United states .and am looking for someone who lives in new zealand , that is willing to help me get situated,with such things as a job, place to stay. I’m considering this to. be a permanent move. . .any help would be greatly aporeciated..

jayda

March 11, 2015

I fine that affensive because i come from new zealand and everyone is not laid back we do injoy our contury i have been there ever since i was born and no one has ever been lazy we all try to recover from our 7.1
earthquake and we havent sit back down and watch our beautiful city fall to pieces we have been re designing everything and heeps of people are working on it and and the wheater is so awesome so stop saying that New Zealand is a wrong place and we are laid back we work our butts of we dont need a women dutting us so stop

Haha! I loved #5 too. Kiwis are definitely rugged and used to living on the land. Thankfully, my husband does all the driving for us here in NZ, so I’m just the navigator, but the one way bridges were new to us, too.
But we love it here! We’re already planning our next trip back in a few years.

Matt

July 8, 2011

The bridge arrow as I guess you understand is give way to oncoming traffic. Unless you are already on that section of road. Swap the arrows round and they give way to you.

Arrows painted on road and parking lots do tell you the direction of travel. I can think of somewhere in NZ where I have had to go against them. Either its a really bad confusing setup or they’ve for some reason only cared about traffic coming in. Not a great way to welcome people to NZ by confusing them as they first hop into the car.

Wish we had known not to bring food with us. They took it all away at the airport and told us the sheep are more important and no outside food is allowed in the country. Did the customs officer enjoy my mothers schnitzel? But it was worth it because the country was so beautiful.

Do you happen to know if canned goods are okay, like a sealed can of peanut butter? I know it’s a totally random question, but I have a new can of peanut butter, on a budget, and going to New Zealand soon, so . . .

“Kiwi web site – The roads are a bit challenging
Reality – Four hours of zigzagging mountain roads, covered with ice and grit and seemingly endless single lane, two direction bridges”
hahaha! I assume you took the crown range road in? one of your posts mentioned you went from Wanaka to Queenstown… you know that road is so much better now that they have finally sealed it…
We’ve just come back from Europe and we were astounted and how marvelous the roads were there! They have like two lanes, in BOTH directions, AND they can drive at 130kmph, and they have tunnels instead of going round the cliffs!

FJ – Wanaka is one of the best drives in New Zealand. So funny how you say it takes “normal, non-amazed” people a lot less than it took you to drive that route. And I agree on the understatement thing – everything is phrased as if it were second nature. Your translation for the caving activity is therefore most appreciated 🙂 Sounds like I may have to do it on my next trip.

I talked with an expat who has lived in NZ for about 7 years and that’s exactly what she said. New Zealander’s are just used to the extreme nature of their country. 🙂 And you should definitely do the Blackwater tubing, it was a lot of fun. I’ll do a full post on it soonish.

Pamela

July 18, 2011

Has anyone canoed the Whanganui river? We were told the trip was perfectly safe for people of all ages! Well, we two seniors capsized and were swept downstream for twenty minutes – in freezing cold water! Some less lucky are in the water much, much longer. However, the rest of the trip was wonderful.
New Zealand is popular with cyclists but the roads we drove were not bike friendly, maybe cyclists have other safer routes to follow.

Ashleigh

October 26, 2016

Oh yes, my young family and I did that trip recently. You sound like you had a rather bad time of it! We all fell out at one point or another, but managed to get to the river bank quickly. I would recommend some kayaking experience, but as long as you know what to do with the paddle you should be fine! Does depend on weather, I guess. Definitely worth a trip though! As a NZ native it is one of the best holidays I’ve had.

I actually remember that bridge! I was on a bus tour so I just shut my eyes and hoped the driver knew what he was doing… that was in 2008 so don’t know if it’s there now. It’s been the enduring memory of how intimidating the roads are there.

One week! I don’t know how you did it. I was there for five weeks last year and felt like I was constantly on the move trying to see as much of the country as possible. One tip for first-timers is to travel via bus so you can gawk at the scenery without losing time. 😉 I bought a pass with Magic Bus and they stopped for photo ops, so you’re not trapped the whole time.

Oh yeah, and for any fellow vegetarians who happen to read this post and my comment, I was always able to find things to eat. Veggie pies weren’t too common, though! Coffee lovers should just go ahead and order a flat white even if you don’t know what it is. 🙂 (I think one of my regrets was not doing so sooner in my trip!)

Ordering coffee there still confuses me. 🙂 And yes, a week was a bit tight, but Tourism New Zealand did a masterful job of coordinating everything. I cannot wait though to return for a more thorough inspection. Thanks for sharing!

This post made me smile but also made me homesick (I’m a Kiwi expat Mum living in the UK). I often tell people visiting Down Under to make sure they allow enough time to drive through NZ as it takes at least 2x as long as you think it will. My British husband drove us from Queenstown to Milford Sound at the beginning of the year and we took 6 hours on the return drive simply because we kept stopping to take photos.

Hilarious…and so true when it came to things I realized too. Especially their understatements for everything. “Aye, no worried brew, that route’ll be no fuss” Except some were the most treacherous and remote I had been on!

And I also wish I had known just how expensive it was. Though it was at the time 1USD=1.25NZD food, beer, and hostels were pretty pricey.

Anouk

January 25, 2015

I wish I knew sledging in the river near to Rotorua was sooooo scary 🙂
We were ‘lucky’ our Kiwi guides told us, there was so much water in the river: great fun…. I was thankfull when I got out of that river again. Haha the guides had great fun we saw on the pictures. We were ‘fighting’ for our lives, haha! I’m also in love with New Zealand and loved it when we arrived again and I could see New Zealand through the clouds. My grandma lived there for 20 years, so I was lucky that I could go there 8 times allready. Thnx for the nice blog, specially the part about Waitomo! Next time you should definately do ‘Into the lost world’, awesome!

Meg Selby

May 30, 2015

Hi Matt! Thank you for this post. I’m going to NZ in December for a week and I am starting to get things booked. Have any advice on good hostels and must-see sites for the week I’m there? I plan on doing bungy or sky diving and other fun things like that. Would love any advice. Thanks!

Steve

August 30, 2015

I found this page while researching what to bring to New Zealand for our upcoming trip.
We will be traveling to Queenstown to get married and then set off for two weeks of honeymoon and exploring the two islands.
We have an itinerary set up that has us driving about 4 hours a day to the next site/location. I figure that we will be able to get there in 6-7 hours each day. That will allow us to stop at whatever we see or catches our interest.

What I want to know is what else should I bring? I have the electrical conversion plugs already. Started to look into cell phone plans/sim card and adding NZ to the GPS. What am I overlooking??

Micheal k

May 3, 2017

Surprised ata week , our kids went high school there so our last trip was our seventh
Trip and was seven weeks still wasn’t enough . We went bay islands , Nelson , wanaka, queenstown , Christchurch , Napier
Two stops in Auckland … extended week and bought oceanfront lot in Taupo bay , northland … so just week ? Ha never enough
Once house built we plan to stay six months yr . A week ? Really ha , a week ?

Eileen

September 25, 2017

We are going to NZ 12/2/17 for two weeks for our 25th going to rent a car and see both north and south and fly some and train some. what do we need for adapters is that for our phones if so where do we get those or to charge our camera battery? We live in Maui and are so excited to see and learn of the culture and beauty. Are we allowed to bring deet into the country and what kind of cloths for this time of year? we want to pack light. we are staying 2 nights at each stop so lots of driving etc. sialing snorleking kayaking whale wtahcing and we love sea life so we hope to see some. will we neeed a wet suit we don’t use them here in Hawaii. we are soooo exicited. I am now scared to death about driving though.. lol